LIFE WITH STORIES

                                SILENCE BECKONS -THE NORWEGIAN TRAIL Storytelling took me all the way up to Norway close to the poles in 2008 I was invited as a special guest speaker and trainer to talk about Indian myths parallel to myths from the Norwegian folk tales at a Folk house school in Kristanstad -Northern part of Norway.     I was lucky to be invited for both training and sharing stories to the young students . Traveling that far I also planned to visit the Fjords to experience the path of the Vikings.  Vikings  were the seafaring Norse people from southern Scandinavia (in present-day Denmark,  Norway  and Sweden) who from the late 8th to late 11th centuries pirated, raided and traded from their Northern European homelands across wide areas of Europe, and explored westward to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. I traveled overnight by a train from Gothenberg in Sweden to Kristanstad in Norway.   I was welcomed by my host at the Folk high school  (folkehøgskole )- (Norw

    Power of a story A journey into the Himalayas is a life-altering experience for many as we realise our place in this existence.     BY:  GEETA RAMANUJAm Before the beginning of time, a story was born. Her name was  Shakti.  There was initially nothing and we may call ‘it’ Shiva. From this  Shakti  there emerged movement, sound, light, elements and evolution. The Story merged with the trees, flowers, earth and the elements. Those who paused and listened could hear her stories. This story wandered about from place to place, was told from person to person in the form of folktales around the fire in every part of the Universe. In India, she also became the fire around which people felt warm listening to stories. She was part of the rivers on whose banks saints and people meditated and listened to her stories. She merged into the great Himalayan mountains and spread herself so that people could listen to her silence. She can never be forgotten, and she never will be as long as the m